Release Candidate vs. Vivendi...

[shaggy2039]

I've never heard of a Release Candidate before following HL2...
I never knew that the process existed...

that being the case, do you think that Vivendi, a massive publishing company, would even dare challenge Valve's release candidate as being sub par? I mean, knowing the following this game has, and the money that's at stake, do you think Vivendi will really be a good measurement of quality control for the game?

Think about the RC process in terms of really crappy games that have been released for a minute...take Daikatana or Superman for the N64 for example...
does this process have any validity in terms of controlling how good a game is?

 

[ShadowFox]

Yes they will.

Vivendi will point out all of the buys they can find.. and Valve will fix them.

 

[Areko]

It's official, Vivendi=teh gay

 

[B-MAn]

the bugs are sorted out by value and playtesting and stuff. Vivendi play through the game and see if its worth releasing yet

 

[FoxDie]

the bugs are sorted out by value and playtesting and stuff. Vivendi play through the game and see if its worth releasing yet

I thought that publishers also did some of their own system testing in the release candidate phase?

 

[shaggy2039]

If Valve has playtesters who find bugs, then what could Vivendi possibly contribute to the quality of the game?

Are they really going to point out some problem with the game that Valve and their playtesters didn't find first?

I don't think so...

 

[Feath]

Vivendi don't test the game to see if it's fun to play or whatever. That's the job of the developers.

Vivendi are probably going to test that the game installs and runs on a different hardware settings. I don't know a lot about this but I know that the RC testing for Half-Life took two days.

 

[mannyfresh027]

Vivendi probably won't take long. Chances are there are any show stopper bugs that Valve missed, it will probably just be cosmetic stuff, if the RC is sent back at all.

 

[Stryyder]

Vivendi probably won't take long. Chances are there are any show stopper bugs that Valve missed, it will probably just be cosmetic stuff, if the RC is sent back at all.

Basically they test for compatability with hardware as someone mentioned, which I am sure Valve has done in a limited fashion. Basically if someones CD ROM drive cant install the game they want to know about it before hand. They may still accept the release candidate if it has compatability issues it just depends on the severity of the issues.

 

[Lanthanide]

I think that the RC system is more of a non-issue these days in the game industry due to the complexity of games involved and the fact that pretty much all development companies have their own team of hand-picked in-house testers. I think it's more of a rubber-stamping exercise giving the full go-ahead before releasing something. I mean, they'd want to look at it and do some testing before they spend $20,000,000 on distributing and advertising it etc to make sure they aren't throwing money down the drain on a product that is not satisfactory, but I don't think it's really a proper bug-hunting situation. Along with the RC software Valve probably also submit bug history and such, to assure vivdendi that the product is in a good shape to ship and that they have been looking to make it as good a product as possible.

Seriously, how could Vivendi hope to find bugs that Valve's team of testers haven't found? The testers at Valve are experienced with the game and have been following all the change history, and should really be competetant enough to find all the important bugs.

 

[ShadowFox]

If Valve has playtesters who find bugs, then what could Vivendi possibly contribute to the quality of the game?

Are they really going to point out some problem with the game that Valve and their playtesters didn't find first?

I don't think so...

It really isn't an issue with Valve, but some companies are horrible at playtesting.

 

[mannyfresh027]

I doubt it will take long. We know we'll see it by Christmas at most

 

[poseyjmac]

of which year is the question

 

[jimbones]

ouch! .

 

[crownest]

I dont give a damn shit of what VU does, they have no choice but to accecpt the RC no matter what.

 

[Stryyder]

I dont give a damn shit of what VU does, they have no choice but to accecpt the RC no matter what.

Vivendi has plenty of choices especiallyh with a company that is developing their own distribution model that will eventually make companies like Vivendi unnecessary in the software industry.

Don't think that they won't operate in their own best interests if they can use the RC acceptance as a bargaining point they will. I wonder what kind of cut Vivendi will get on direct sales through Steam?

 

[Hitman47]

Vivendi has plenty of choices especiallyh with a company that is developing their own distribution model that will eventually make companies like Vivendi unnecessary in the software industry.

Don't think that they won't operate in their own best interests if they can use the RC acceptance as a bargaining point they will. I wonder what kind of cut Vivendi will get on direct sales through Steam?

But this also means that VU has to really take care what they do ... because Steam makes VALVe not only a customer to VU but also a competitor. I think VALVe has enough power to force VU to certain decisions - or at least they are equal in power.

 

[Feath]

Vivendi has plenty of choices especiallyh with a company that is developing their own distribution model that will eventually make companies like Vivendi unnecessary in the software industry.

Don't think that they won't operate in their own best interests if they can use the RC acceptance as a bargaining point they will. I wonder what kind of cut Vivendi will get on direct sales through Steam?

Vivendi won't have the power over Valve as they do with other developers. Valve are a self financed company, they don't rely on Vivendi for any money, unlike other developers. I'm sure if Vivendi did withhold releasing Half-Life 2 then Valve could just do them for beach of contract. It's not as if Half-Life 2 will be in limbo for ages without a publisher, I'm sure many publishers will be dying to get the chance to publish Half-Life 2.

 

[Stryyder]

Vivendi won't have the power over Valve as they do with other developers. Valve are a self financed company, they don't rely on Vivendi for any money, unlike other developers. I'm sure if Vivendi did withhold releasing Half-Life 2 then Valve could just do them for beach of contract. It's not as if Half-Life 2 will be in limbo for ages without a publisher, I'm sure many publishers will be dying to get the chance to publish Half-Life 2.

Not knowing how the distribution contract is written makes it hard to know what power Vivendi has but I will tell you one thing is that Vivendi has a hell of a lot more money to litigate if they choose and tie this up in a contract dispute if they wanted to.. Distribution contracts usually favor and protect the publisher, like leases protect both parties but usually favor the landlord.

 

[crownest]

It would be better if Valve were publishers themselves, its better cause they dont have to worry so much. Like EA are developers and publishers too.

 

[Ken5h1ro]

I've never heard of a Release Candidate before following HL2...
I never knew that the process existed...

The "Release Candidate" process is a normal procedure...
Even companies like Micro$oft applies it to their products, but I think that they internally test each RC for sure.
Once, about 4 years ago or so, I've seen the "RC1" (release candidate 1) of Windows XP installed at one of my friend's home.
I don't know how he managed to get it, though... :naughty:

 

[Negative9]

The "Release Candidate" process is a normal procedure...
Even companies like Micro$oft applies it to their products, but I think that they internally test each RC for sure.
Once, about 4 years ago or so, I've seen the "RC1" (release candidate 1) of Windows XP installed at one of my friend's home.
I don't know how he managed to get it, though... :naughty:

Microsoft's betas and release candidates are usually available to anyone with an MSDN subscription.

 

[Mattigus]

Vivendi doesn't want to blindly release something with their name on it without testing it first. We're all sure that Half-Life 2 will come out of Valve mostly bug-free, but I'm sure Vivendi just wants to make sure.

 

[ferd]

So, if the RC is actually send to VU the 15th, then there is a really big chance the game could go gold just a couple of days later?
Right?

 

[Negative9]

So, if the RC is actually send to VU the 15th, then there is a really big chance the game could go gold just a couple of days later?
Right?

Yeah, but it usually takes 2-3 weeks after going gold before it hits the shelves. Since they're doing a world wide release it could take even longer.

 

[Lanthanide]

In my experience, it shouldn't take much longer for it to go worldwide than just a US-only title. Doom3 and Warcraft3 and Diablo 2 & Exp were all worldwide releases that showed up in NZ (where I live) at the same time or 3-4 days after they did in USA, and all of these titles had 2-3 weeks production time after going gold.

The real kicker is the regionalisation. If they have to change some of the in-game text or voices for some reason, then they have to get it re-done by all the localization companies into the x languages they're doing (isn't HL2 going to be about 7 or so?), which takes time and money.

 

[DC9884]

Steam takes care of that on its own. If you need another langauge, you download it off of steam, subtitles and all.

 

[Francis_Cole]

its not uncommon for a publisher to reject the first release candiate, or more likly the devloper will re submit.

 

[DrPowers]

Its like submitting a papper for publishing. If you did a good job then it'll take no time at all. If you did a crappy job expect it to get returned and not published

 

[Play4Fun]

What if Valve decides to change publisher?? possible?

 

[Stryyder]

In my experience, it shouldn't take much longer for it to go worldwide than just a US-only title. Doom3 and Warcraft3 and Diablo 2 & Exp were all worldwide releases that showed up in NZ (where I live) at the same time or 3-4 days after they did in USA, and all of these titles had 2-3 weeks production time after going gold.

The real kicker is the regionalisation. If they have to change some of the in-game text or voices for some reason, then they have to get it re-done by all the localization companies into the x languages they're doing (isn't HL2 going to be about 7 or so?), which takes time and money.

I believe the regionalization was done by Valve this is only an issue on titles which the developer is relying on the publisher to do these things. That means the RC needs no further work if accepted outside of replication.

 

[Navy Man]

geeze if they do happen to find one little bug, just send the patch over steam !!!, i just can't wait :<

 

[Andy018]

I know from experience that Eidos do play testing in house even for their externally developed games... however Eidos did release
"DIRE katana" ... but the process is usually

In house (Valve) Testing -> RC shipped to publisher -> Publisher Testing

If RC = Good Then
RC.Release = True
Else IF
RC.Release = False
Send Bug Report to Valve and GOTO line 1

LOL

or thats how it was were i worked